USPTO Patents Application 09730796

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WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A television broadcasting system comprising a broadcast
service equipment disposed at a broadcasting side for delivering
chargeable programs and advertisement programs, and a plurality
of set top boxes (STBs) each disposed at a subscriber side for
receiving the chargeable programs and the advertisement
programs to display the chargeable programs and the
advertisement programs on a screen, each of the STBs having a
function for selecting a charging system among a plurality of
charging systems based on a viewing type of the subscriber side
with respect to viewing the chargeable programs and the
advertisement programs.

2. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 1,
wherein the subscriber side selects, before viewing one of the
chargeable programs, either a first option for viewing no
advertisement program and a second option for viewing at least
one of the advertisement programs together with the one of the
chargeable programs, and the broadcasting side sets a first
charging system or a second charging system depending on the
first option or the second option.

3. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 2,
wherein each of the STBs allows the at least one of the

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advertisement programs to be displayed on the screen as an
advertisement icon during display of the one of the chargeable
programs when the first option is selected.

4. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 3,
wherein a click of the advertisement icon to display one of the
advertisement programs on the screen allows the broadcasting
side to set a charging system which charges a lower fee.

5. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 4,
wherein each of the STBs has an internet function for receiving
advertisement data for display thereof on the screen during
display of one of the advertisement programs.

6. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 5,
wherein an access to advertisement data via the internet allows
the broadcasting side to set another charging system which
charges a lower fee.

7. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 6,
wherein purchase of a commodity in connection with one of the
advertisement programs allows the broadcasting side to set
another charging system which charges a lower fee.

8. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 3,

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wherein each of the STBs has a storage device for storing one of
the chargeable programs after one of the advertisement icons is
clicked.

9. The television broadcasting system as defined in claim 8,
wherein the chargeable program is displayed in a time-shift
display scheme after the chargeable program is restarted from a
temporary stop by the click of the advertisement icon.

10. A method for setting a charging system for a cable
television broadcasting system, comprising the steps of allowing
a viewer to select a first option to view only a chargeable
program or a second option to view an advertisement program as
an icon together with a chargeable program, allowing the viewer
to select the icon to display the advertisement program instead of
the chargeable program while storing the chargeable program in a
storage device, and allowing the viewer to select restart of the
chargeable program in a time-shift display scheme by reading the
chargeable program from the storage device.